On 17th July, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was blown out of the sky over Ukraine, killing 298 people. The attack on the aircraft sent shockwaves around the globe, with leaders in Europe and Australia vowing to bring the bodies home and the killers to justice.

Two months on, the crash site has not been secured, it's still not certain if all the remains of the victims have been found and the land around the downed plane is the centre of an ongoing war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists.

This week, Four Corners reporter Stephen Long travels to Europe and Ukraine to tell the stories of families who lost their loved ones in the crash - and people whose lives have been devastated by the dirty war in Ukraine. His report paints a stark picture of the conflict and the tactics used by both sides to gain an advantage.

In Europe, Long finds families caught in a cycle of grief, their leaders scrambling to react to the attack. In Ukraine, he meets with families who have lost their homes as their neighbourhood is over-run by Russian-backed militia. In broader terms, he shows how Ukraine has become the fault line in a power struggle between Russia and Europe.

This is a brutal conflict. Civilians are kidnapped and killed. At the same time, government forces have used the crash site as a strategic opportunity to take back lost territory.

"If you look at the crash site and what happened, one of the things that strikes everyone is the complete lack of respect, of the desecration of the site." - Strategic expert

The report highlights the fact that despite sanctions being imposed by the West, the economic dependence of Europe on Russia has hopelessly compromised any real attempt to find and punish the killers.

The tragedy has also led many to reconsider the strategic future of Europe, with one former top general warning that Russia should never be allowed to hold his country to ransom.

"We should never, never, never be dependent on a party or a partner that is not playing by the same rules, that is not respecting human rights." - Former NATO General

MH17 - CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE, reported by Stephen Long and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 8th September at 8.30pm on ABC. It is replayed on Tuesday 9th September at 11.00am and 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 at 8.00pm on Saturday, ABC iview or abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

MH17 - Caught in the Crossfire, 8 September 2014

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: The tragedy within a tragedy: welcome to Four Corners.

When Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was downed in a field of sunflowers in the east of Ukraine two months ago, the civil war that was taking place between Ukrainian nationalists and Russian-backed separatists suddenly became very real for Australians.

The horror of the loss of 298 innocent lives, 38 of them from Australia, has also become the catalyst for what is perhaps the biggest rift between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

And now the Australian Government has written itself into the conflict. The Dutch government will announce the preliminary findings of its investigation into the crash tomorrow but it's already widely accepted that the plane was brought down by a surface-to-air rocket fired by the Ukraine separatists.

And while relatives mourn, on the big stage the West is struggling to force Russian president Vladimir Putin to shelve his aggressive backing of separatist Ukraine militia to force the pro-western Ukraine government back within the Russian orbit.

A NATO summit in Wales at the weekend produced some of the toughest rhetoric yet but the threat of deeper sanctions against Russia has been seriously stymied by the raw fact that so much of Europe's fragile economy relies on trade with Russia.

For tonight's story, Stephen Long travelled to the Netherlands and to Ukraine.

BARACK OBAMA, US PRESIDENT (July 18): Evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine.

STEPHEN LONG: Russia's president Putin tries to shift the blame to Kiev.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (July 18) (translation): This tragedy wouldn't have happened if there were peace in that land and if the fighting had not resumed in the south-east of Ukraine. And of course, the state over which this tragedy happened is responsible for this terrible tragedy.

STEPHEN LONG: His claims are at odds with a weight of evidence suggesting that Russian-backed separatists, using a BUK missile system, shot down MH17.

TONY ABBOTT, PRIME MINISTER: I can inform you that the…

STEPHEN LONG: The Abbott Government outgunned the world with the strength of its rhetoric.

TONY ABBOTT (July 18): This looks less like an accident than a crime. I want to repeat this: as things stand, this looks less like an accident than a crime. And if so, the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

STEPHEN LONG: Early on, Australia gained kudos for steering a resolution through the UN Security Council that was meant to safeguard the evidence and allow access to the crash site.

JULIE BISHOP, FOREIGN MINISTER (July 21): The message from this unanimous resolution to those at the site is: do not tamper with the evidence. Allow the investigators full access, unimpeded, unfettered, to the site. Do not touch the belongings of the victims. They are not yours. They belong to the families and they are evidence. And allow the bodies to be retrieved.

The message to the perpetrators from the United Nations Security Council resolution is: you will be found and you will be brought to justice.

STEPHEN LONG: Worthy sentiments ignored; high hopes unfulfilled.

Thirty-eight people who called Australia home died in this disaster, but no nation suffered more than the Netherlands. One hundred and ninety-three Dutch citizens were killed.

MH17 is viewed as Holland's 9/11.

FRANS TIMMERMANS, DUTCH FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER (July 21): How horrible must have been the final moments of their lives when they knew the plane was going down. Did they lock hands with their loved ones? Did they hold their children close to their hearts? Did they look each other in the eyes one final time in a wordless goodbye? We will never know.

The demise of almost 200 of my compatriots has left a hole in the heart of the Dutch nation. It has caused grief, anger and despair.

STEPHEN LONG: The collective outpouring of grief and anger surprised even the Dutch.

(To Ferry Beidermann) What do you mean by "it was un-Dutch?"

FERRY BIEDERMANN, CONTRIBUTOR, JANE'S INTELLIGENCE REVIEW: Well, there's been a debate on that. Ah, that we don't have a tradition of national days of mourning. Ah, it's almost taken as imposing mourning on people. Um, "everybody does it in their own way" is the Dutch line.

KO COLIJN, PROF., GENERAL DIRECTOR, CLINGENDAEL INSTITUTE: It was emotional. Ah, and that's a sort of paradox because we, we are a rational people and a calm people, a tactical people.

STEPHEN LONG: A week after the tragedy outside the departure terminal at Schiphol Airport, the pavement's awash with flowers and tributes to the lost.

Some of the flowers are starting to wilt and fade - but not the grief or the anger.

SELINE FREDRICKZ: It's a nightmare. Really a nightmare.

Rob and Seline Fredrickz lost their 23-year-old son, Bryce, and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Daisy, in the tragedy. The young couple lived at home with Bryce's parents.

SELINE FREDRICKZ: I can't tell you, it's horrible. Everywhere in the house they are. Everything I see, I have a memory with both of them.

SELINE FREDRICKZ: My husband has, er, one brother and, ah, three sisters living there in Cairns, Brisbane and in Sydney.

STEPHEN LONG: Bryce learnt to dive on the Great Barrier Reef, off Cairns. When they perished, the young couple were on their way to Bali for a diving holiday.

While many relatives prefer to grieve privately, Rob and Selene have consciously chosen to share their pain so the world remembers.

SELINE FREDRICKZ: I know - everyone knows - when something bad happens in the world, the whole world is in grief. And a week later something else happens and they forget about it. It's something new. But this is not, not finished.

STEPHEN LONG: And you don't want to the world to stop watching or stop listening?

SELENE FREDRICKZ: Yeah. And how people... When they see what's going on, wh-why, how we are grieving and what beautiful people they've killed, they have to stop.

STEPHEN LONG: Seline and Rob have met every military plane that flew from Ukraine bearing coffins, hoping the remains of their loved ones might be on board. It's given them great comfort, though they fear the bodies are still at the crash site.

SELINE FREDRICKZ: Close my eyes and I can still see the site over there, imagining that there are bodies still, bodies and body parts who might be from Daisy and Bryce. And no one can enter the site. No one can. It's horrible.

STEPHEN LONG: The army barracks at Hilversum, Holland, has become a makeshift morgue: another focus of mourning. This is where the painstaking process of identifying victims is taking place.

(To Howard Way) How many people are working on the investigation, Howard?

STEPHEN LONG: Howard Way from the British disaster victim identification team is one of the leaders.

HOWARD WAY: There's over 200 personnel here from countries across the world. Obviously, the countries concerned in the disaster - so obviously Australia - are well represented here. And Malaysia.

STEPHEN LONG: Many of the investigators worked together a decade ago, after the Boxing Day tsunami in South East Asia.

(To Howard Way) How much more difficult has your task been made by the delays in getting the bodies out of the crash site?

HOWARD WAY: Well, it's an unusual investigation because we haven't had access to the scene. The disaster victim identification investigation, which is my area: that begins at the scene because sometimes the context of how human remains are found and property with them, um, you know, assists a speedy identification. We don't identify people on property, for example, but it gives us a good clue as to who they are.

Yeah, so it's unique circumstances. Um, you know, we may never deal with something like that again.

STEPHEN LONG: And how do you feel about what happened on the ground in east Ukraine?

HOWARD WAY: Well, it's not ideal, um, but, you know, it's, it's a politically volatile area of the world. Ah, it's, it's frustrating, obviously. But we will still identify these people, ah, here in the Netherlands. But obviously the wider criminal investigation: ah, it will certainly have an impact, er, on that.

STEPHEN LONG: The reality is the investigation's been compromised by lack of access to the crash site: initially blocked by pro-Russian militia, then by a military offensive launched by the Ukrainian army.

BRIAN McDONALD, CMDR, MISSION CHIEF, AFP: You've got a bit of, major bit of fuselage on the right hand side, another bit of fuselage…

STEPHEN LONG: For a while, the Australian contingent on the ground was full of bravado - or denial.

BRIAN McDONALD: So if you stray into - step into the paddock, you'll be stepping into the areas that we're trying to work, so that's going to slow us down. So we ask you not to do that. Guys, you'll get plenty of footage off the, off the road.

JOURNALIST: Can you hear the shelling?

BRIAN McDONALD: Yeah, of course.

JOURNALIST: What do you think?

BRIAN McDONALD: Well, it's not landing here so it's OK.

JOURNALIST: But you're still smiling?

BRIAN McDONALD: What do you do? We've got a job to do, so we'll get on.

STEPHEN LONG: But the optimism wouldn't last. And the naive assumption that Kiev's pro-western government would suspend hostilities while the bodies were recovered proved to be naive indeed.

(To Christ Klep) What do you make of the Ukrainian government's tactic of ramping up the hot war against the pro-Russian separatists after this terrible disaster?

CHRIST KLEP, DR, MILITARY HISTORIAN, UNI. OF AMSTERDAM: From a military point of view, it made perfect sense.

I guess that the thing is that since the end of the Cold War, we've become sort of used to this eternal peace idea.

STEPHEN LONG: Dr Christ Klep is a military historian from the University of Amsterdam. He's been analysing the tactics in the war.

CHRIST KLEP: I think that the Ukrainian army did not allow those investigators in because they felt there was a very basic military operation argument, which is: "We now have the opportunity, we have the timeframe, the window of opportunity to drive them from what's, from our point of view" - from the Ukrainian point of view - "is a very important line of advance."

Because if they go through the crash site, which they did, they will split the separatist area in two, allowing them to be wiped out separately.

STEPHEN LONG: Russia and Ukraine share a 2,300 kilometre border. The MH17 crash site covers a stretch of land between the rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, right in the heart of the war.

Neither side was willing to give ground here in this strategic territory.

Rather than ceasefire after the crash so investigators could safely access the scene, Ukrainian generals drove home their military advantage.

CHRIST KLEP: Of course, it's pretty coincidental that this happens at a time where the international community has pointed at the separatists and said, "You are the primitives. You are the bad guys. You are the scum of the earth." And I really think that the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian government is using that dynamic, that momentum.

STEPHEN LONG: It's 6:00am at Eindhoven Air Base in the south of the Netherlands. The Australian military is loading up a giant aircraft, a C-17, bound for Ukraine.

RAAF OFFICER: Straight forward, straighten him up.

STEPHEN LONG: Its cargo: vehicles, medical equipment and supplies for the multinational team on the ground in the war-torn east, hoping to complete the repatriation of human remains from the crash site.

In late July and early August, Australian RAAF C-17s were flying round the clock from Eindhoven to Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city.

DEAN BOLTON, SQUADRON LEADER, RAAF: The aircraft can carry up to 60 tons of cargo and all in all it weighs up: max weight 260 tonnes. So it's a 50-metre wingspan, 50 metres long. It can fit a fair bit of stuff inside.

STEPHEN LONG: Squadron leader Dean Bolton is a veteran airman. He flew corpses back from Ukraine to the Netherlands as part of Operation Bring Them Home.

(To Dean Bolton) What kind of reaction did you get from relatives of the people who died in that crash?

DEAN BOLTON: We met them after the flight. The families came on board the aircraft and met the crew. Um, they were thankful, um, that we were there to help and, ah, obviously very emotional for them and, ah, some of the crew members as well.

STEPHEN LONG: Those bodies hadn't been treated with a lot of respect before they got on these aircraft?

DEAN BOLTON: Um, look, at the back of the aircraft, ah, was where they came into the care of the RAAF and, ah, we did the best we, ah, could to show utmost respect for our victims and, ah, deliver them back to the Netherlands where they can hopefully make the journey back to their families.

STEPHEN LONG: Just after we land at Kharkiv Airport, the very last plane repatriating human remains takes off from Ukraine.

It's Monday the 4th of August and tons of heavy equipment is still being transported in for Operation Bring Them Home - all for nothing.

Two days later, the Dutch and Australian governments announce they're suspending the mission.

It's the middle of the night at Kharkiv in Ukraine, just after 1:30 in the morning. And the multinational force that said it was going to bring the bodies home is starting to pull out: first the Dutch police, the Australian Federal Police soon to follow, the increasing conflict on the ground making it just too dangerous to continue the search for bodies.

No one knows when the search can resume, if the search can resume. War doesn't stop for such things.

At Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine, a festival's underway. The statue of Lenin overlooking the dancers is evidence of the region's ties to Russia and its recent Soviet past. A crowd of locals enjoys the show but the music and dancing's at odds with tensions in the town.

Slavyansk was one of the first cities to fall to the pro-Russian separatists. It was only recaptured it in early July. There are snipers on the rooftops and soldiers everywhere.

Fifteen kilometres south, at the town of Kramatorsk, the Ukrainian army is preparing for war. Not so long ago, this base was in enemy territory, surrounded by rebel fighters. Now it's a stronghold of the Ukrainian army.

It's allowed a small group of journalists onto this base for the first time.

UKRAINE ARMY SPOKESPERSON (translation): To my right there's a service station where the vehicles comes to refill and then they return to their mission. Those big trucks are used for evacuation. They are tow-trucks.

STEPHEN LONG: Soldiers here have seen death and injury. This man has recently returned from a battle against the separatist militia.

UKRAINIAN SOLDIER: The machine-gunner had eight gunshot wounds. His knee cap was smashed but they fixed it. He is recovering in a hospital in Kharkiv. God willing, we'll visit him tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

STEPHEN LONG: An armoured column heads out from the base at Kramatorsk towards the battlefront. It's passing through areas safely under its control, but even here opinion is heavily divided. There's a lot of sympathy for the rebels, and a lot of resentment about the damage the conflict has wrought on the ground.

In the nearby village of Semenivka, the Ukrainian forces are well known. The villagers have been on the receiving end of their artillery fire.

This used to be rebel-held territory and a key transport route for the pro-Russian separatists. Semenivka became collateral damage as the Ukrainian army retook the region and blew the village to smithereens.

Beyond the bullet holes on this gate is the home of Alexander Marinenko and his family. They returned two days before we met them, to find extensive damage.

ALEXANDER MARINENKO, SEMENIVKA RESIDENT (translation): You see over here, everything is burned. A bomb or a mine struck over there and everything has been burned.

STEPHEN LONG: His mother and father-in-law, the children's grandparents, lived on the other side of the wall.

ALEXANDER MARINENKO (translation): Everything burned. They lost their television, fridge, all the furniture, all their clothes. Everything burned. When the grandparents came back, they had no winter clothes left to wear. My mother-in-law left in a gown.

It's going to keep crumbling. What are we going to do? Nobody knows. Who is going to help?

STEPHEN LONG: Destroyed.

Alexander takes me inside the devastated building. There's live electrical wiring hanging where the roof used to be.

ALEXANDER MARINENKO (translation): That's a live wire.

STEPHEN LONG: His mother-in-law, Lyudmila Krivkova, is 74. She shows me what used to be the family cellar.

LYUDMILA KRIVKOVA (translation): We spent days and nights in this cellar. If we had stayed in this cellar, you can imagine what would have happened to us.

STEPHEN LONG: So, she's explaining to me that the bomb actually destroyed the basement. The place you would hide when bombs hit was actually destroyed when they shelled this place. (To Lyudmila) So it was very lucky you weren't living here.

A strange twist of fate took Lyudmila away from here when it was bombed. She was having major surgery.

LYUDMILA KRIVKOVA (translation): If it were not for the surgery, maybe I would have stayed, I was terrified. I was told there's nothing left. My neighbour called me and said, "Auntie Lyuda, we don't have a place to live now."

And I was thinking: "What's she talking about?" How can there be no place to live? I couldn't even imagine it. (Cries) And then I came back. You know, this is the first time I've cried.

STEPHEN LONG: There's loss and grief on both sides of this conflict.

CHURCH CHOIR (singing; translation): All the land is singing praise only for you, our dear Lord.

STEPHEN LONG: Three months ago to this day, this congregation and its minister were terrorised by pro-Russian militia, with terrible consequences.

STEPHEN LONG: He urges love and forgiveness, which is remarkable under the circumstances.

ALEXANDER PAVENKO: I lost two brothers and two sons. After a similar Sunday service on the 8th of June bad people came here, so-called militia, on the steps of this place of worship on the day of the Trinity. They were carrying weapons. They were swearing. They took away four of my close relatives and their cars. They took their lives.

STEPHEN LONG: The bodies of Father Pavenko's kidnapped brothers and sons were found in a mass grave outside of Slavyansk. Father Pavenko says he has only one question for those who killed his cherished family: what was our crime?

ALEXANDER PAVENKO: Even for those people who did us harm, we don't have hatred, don't feel anger. They are people who were deceived by propaganda. We live amongst those people. Many people who did evil left here, but some stayed. But God placed us amongst them.

STEPHEN LONG: How do you see this conflict ending?

ALEXANDER PAVENKO: Everybody wants peace but they want it for free. It doesn't work like that. Everything has its price. Everything has its value.

STEPHEN LONG: At a military checkpoint outside of Slavyansk, armed soldiers check passports and search cars.

The checkpoints are ubiquitous. During our time in Ukraine, the atmosphere at checkpoints became increasingly tense, troops apparently fearing that separatist militia were heading from points east, hiding among many thousands of refugees fleeing the fighting.

A convoy of vehicles bearing refugees takes a break during its journey from the war zone. We join the exodus as the bone-jarring buses roll along the ruined roads.

The people on board are fleeing the town of Krasnyi Luch, in the Luhansk region close to the Russian border - one of the main arteries for rebels transporting arms and reinforcements from Russia.

MARIA, DISPLACED PERSON: I'm scared. I don't want the country to be destroyed.

STEPHEN LONG: Maria was studying languages before she was forced to flee.

MARIA: I studied in Luhansk and as they bombed the town now and it's almost totally destroyed, I don't know when we will be able to continue studying at the university. It's a big problem and I am really worried about it.

STEPHEN LONG: How are the people in your town feeling when the bombs come down?

MARIA: Ah, they all got very panicked, um, terrified. Everybody got the same reaction and they at once wanted to leave the town.

STEPHEN LONG: The journey itself is not without risk: less than a fortnight after these people made their way west, another convoy was reportedly fired upon and a dozen people incinerated.

On route to the safe haven of Kharkiv, we're stopped at yet another checkpoint.

STEPHEN LONG: Alina Nikiforova has left her home in Krasnyi Luch with her parents, her young daughter, and a rather fat cat in tow.

After about five hours on the road, the convoy of displaced people arrives on the outskirts of Kharkiv. The family enjoys an emotional reunion with Alina's oldest daughter, Julia.

Two days later, we join the family as they prepare a twilight barbecue. Here the only battle is getting a meal ready before sundown - but it's a different story back home.

While they cook at peace in a park, intense fighting's underway in Krasnyi Luch as the Ukrainian army moves to seize it from the rebels.

ALINA NIKIFOROVA, DISPLACED PERSON (translation): As soon as we left our town was bombed, they were shooting. We are just happy that with God's help we escaped at the last moment. It was dangerous. We didn't know where we were going. It was our last chance to escape the war zone.

To save our child: we had to save her life. And we didn't know if we were going to succeed.

STEPHEN LONG: Even this close-knit family is divided on the conflict. Julia is a Ukrainian patriot; her mother is pro-Russian. But politics play second fiddle to love and food. They're renowned cooks who've won a competition in Ukraine and, despite their hardship, they extend us a kind offer.

JULIA SHEVCHENKO, DISPLACED PERSON (translation): We look forward to seeing you in our town after the war is over. We'll show you how we live and treat you to some cherry dumplings, our Ukrainian food. Please come, don't miss it.

STEPHEN LONG (translation): Thank you. Thank you.

JULIA SHEVCHENKO (translation): You're welcome. (Laughs)

STEPHEN LONG: If they still have a home to go to.

A day later, a convoy of 200 Russian trucks begins making its way to the Ukrainian border. According to Russia, it's a humanitarian mission. No one seems to know whether it's really an aid convoy or a Trojan Horse.

Is it a provocation to Kiev? A prelude to invasion? Or is Putin calling the West's bluff?

(To Christ Klep) What is president Putin's agenda?

CHRIST KLEP: President Putin's agenda is keeping everyone confused. I mean, that's a, (laughs) that's a good policy because then you're probably always right. Ah, people tend to look at Putin and say that he does not have a policy. No: his policy is not having a policy, um, because that way he keeps everyone confused.

FERRY BEIDERMANN: I think Russia is trying to, ah, keep its sphere of influence from shrinking. And, ah, what is left in eastern Europe is mainly Ukraine and, ah, and Belorussia. I think it wants to prevent those two countries from, ah, spinning out of its orbit and Ukraine has already done so to a large degree. A lot of Russians feel that, er, Ukraine is actually the heartland of Russia and they've lost it.

STEPHEN LONG: But Russia seems determined not to let Ukraine go. Even as Putin and Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko met in Minsk for peace talks, NATO was gathering evidence of Russia invading Ukraine's sovereign territory and fighting a hot war on the ground.

STEPHEN LONG: Retired four-star general Dick Berlijn is a former commander-in-chief of the Netherlands armed forces. He argues that Putin is trying to re-establish a Soviet-style sphere of influence.

DICK BERLIJN: He probably wishes to re-establish that influence sphere, ah, let's say towards the boundaries of the former Soviet Union. And I think we need to start sending very clear messages that this is something of the past. The world no longer functions like that.

STEPHEN LONG: How does the West combat that?

DICK BERLIJN: Up until now, very poorly. We haven't been sending coherent messages: not as NATO, not as the EU. It's very strange, of course when you, when we talk about sanctions that we cannot agree in Europe on which, ah, things should be sanctioned. We see that large countries still have a very large interest in, in dealing with Russia.

STEPHEN LONG: It's telling that the sanctions imposed in the European Union exclude Russia's number one export: the gas that flows through Ukraine to the West.

The backdrop to the terrible conflict in Ukraine and the response to the MH17 disaster is oil and gas. The Russian economy depends on exports of oil and gas. Much of Europe in turn is heavily dependent on Russian gas - even Ukraine. Without Russian gas in the winter, its citizens would freeze.

The politics of gas and oil has defined the way that nations have responded to this conflict. It's tempered the sanctions that Western nations are willing to impose and behind the way various nations have responded is a whole lot of vested economic interest.

DICK BERLIJN: It's absolutely a factor. Um, the fact that we're, ah, many countries in, in, in Western Europe for instance are dependent on, on Russian gas of course makes them very reluctant to speak very loudly against Russia. Um, if that dependency was not there, of course you're much freer to, to speak out. So this is absolutely a factor and that should teach us a lesson.

We should never, never, never be dependent on a party, or a partner, that is not playing by the same rules, that is not respecting human rights, et cetera, et cetera. If you be- if you do become dependent on such a party, you know, you have very little room to move.

STEPHEN LONG: A third of Holland's crude oil imports come from Russia and Russian companies have major interests in refineries in Holland.

Russia is the European Union's third largest trading partner and Holland ranks second, after Germany, as the major destination in the EU for Russian exports.

At the Port of Rotterdam in south Holland, Europe's busiest hub, Russia accounts for nearly 15 per cent of total throughput.

The sanctions will cut both ways.

(To Dick Berlijn) The sanctions could lead to another deep recession for Europe?

DICK BERLIJN: It could hurt us a lot, ah, and you're absolutely right: those things need to be considered and they, they are serious issues. But, ah, you, we don't want to live in a world anymore where, ah, the international rule of law is not the norm. Ah, we want to, to live in a world where the international rule of law is the norm. We don't want to live in a world where, where the, the, the, the strong man decides what is happening.

STEPHEN LONG: On a Monday evening at Hilversum in Holland, the team behind a popular TV talk show is getting ready for air time. Tonight's program is a special entirely on MH17. It's the first broadcast to bring together relatives, experts, and people early on the scene.

LEONIE VEESENBEEK, SISTER OF VICTIM: It "helps" that so many pay their respects, even though it doesn't really soften the pain and sadness. It gives you the strength to get through the next day.

STEPHEN LONG (voiceover): Amid the pain and grieving, Christ Klep speaks dispassionately about the Realpolitik of war.

CHRIST KLEP: I heard them say this morning on TV that it would be good if the Ukrainians conquered that area because that's a pro-western army and that would give us permission to go do the investigation. I can tell you right now: that's nonsense.

(Excerpt ends)

CHRIST KLEP: If you look at the crash site and what happened, one of the things that strikes everyone is the complete lack of respect, the complete desecration of the site. I think it has something to do with our standard of civilisation, in which each human life has become a tragedy: the loss of each human life has become a tragedy.

In a war, you need to take civilians first, they take priority. In the Ukraine, they do not. It is a simple fact.

Also on the panel is a well-known Dutch journalist, Rudy Bouma, who was the first Dutch TV reporter at the site.

RUDY BOUMA: You saw books, diaries, um, cards with personal text on it, which you are not allowed to see normally, which you shouldn't see but it's all lying there in the fields. It's so open and obviously there's the remainings of the, of the, of the passengers on board, ah, and it was very hard because the smell is, is very tough to, ah, to handle.

STEPHEN LONG: Even tougher because it was personal.

RUDY BOUMA: Well, I was getting text messages from an acquaintance of mine who actually lost people on the plane: his, family-in-law. And, ah, he was asking me, "How is it on the crash site? Ah, how are they dealing with the bodies? Are they tret-, treating with, ah, respect? What are they doing with the personal belongings?"

So during my work I was getting confronted with the fact that, you know, also people in my surroundings were actually, ah, killed in this plane. And my cameraman, Joris Hentenaar: he was actually - he lost a friend on the plane and, ah, in that way this reporting was extra, ah, personal, extra, extra emotional and so forth.

STEPHEN LONG: Amid the carnage, Rudy Bouma was struck by the sea of sunflowers.

(To Rudy Bouma) How did you feel when you saw those fields of sunflowers?

RUDY BOUMA: It's so surrealistic. Actually, the fields are not only just in the neighbourhood of the crash site. For instance, the cockpit: it actually crashed inside the sunflower fields. It's just in the middle. There's sunflowers all around it and it's so surrealistic that such a horrible scene is surrounded by such beauty.

STEPHEN LONG: Rudy and his cameraman decided to pick some flowers in memory of the fallen.

RUDY BOUMA: We ended up with a big box of sunflowers and other flowers we took from the crash site and we took them to Holland.

STEPHEN LONG: The flowers ended up with renowned Dutch still life photographic artist Bas Meeuws.

(To Bas Meeuws) So all of these flowers are from the crash site?

BAS MEEUWS, DUTCH ARTIST: Well, not all from the crash site. These roses, Ukrainian roses are from the memorial site. This thistle here and a little camomile over here. Yeah, of course, the sunflowers. You see them here.

STEPHEN LONG: Yes, the sunflowers in various stages.

BAS MEEUWS: Yeah, really various stages of degeneration.

STEPHEN LONG: Initially, Bas was commissioned to make an artwork in memory of the friends of Rudy and his cameraman who died in the crash. It's now become a project in memory of all the victims.

BAS MEEUWS: They were there at, er, at the air crash site. They were witnesses of what happened.

I just want to make my art a reaction on what happened and I just want to make beauty and I want people to realise that, er, life is too beautiful to shoot each other.

RUDY BOUMA: Of course, we're known by the sunflowers of Van Gogh. So in that way I think it's an extra strong symbol to have this artwork. And also it shouldn't be like a bouquet of mourning: it should be like a bouquet of life. Ah, I think, ah, sunflowers, ah, represent hope for life.

STEPHEN LONG: Across in east Ukraine, the wreckage of the plane still lies in the fields and the war goes on, as autumn nears and the sunflower season ends.

KERRY O'BRIEN: And tonight, with the ink barely dry on the ceasefire agreement signed by both sides after five months of fighting, the truce is already ragged.

The preliminary report into the downing of flight MH17, to be released by the Dutch government tomorrow, hampered though the investigation has been, will make interesting reading. It will be based on available sources, such as satellite imagery, radar details and information from the black box recorders. The final report may take up to a year to complete.

Next week on Four Corners: an international investigation that takes a close look at how free Australian casinos are from organised crime.

Government to the Russian Federation | Responses to questions by Four Corners regarding MH17, the investigation, the Australian Government, Russia's involvement in Ukraine, Settlement in Ukraine and the G20

Dutch Photographer | The work of Bas Meeuws, the photographer who has been commissioned to photograph flowers from the MH17 crash site

How to explain disasters to children | At times the media coverage of MH17 has been graphic and distressing. So how do you talk to children about traumatic news stories like this, and should you? | The Pulse

MH17 - Satellite photos | Satellite photos taken near the Ukrainian town of Grabovo show MH17 debris strewn far from the primary crash site in eastern Ukraine

Ukraine and Russia: the military imbalance | The stand-off between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea has been described as the "biggest crisis in Europe in the 21st century", a threat to peace and security and "very volatile" | ABC News | 4 March, 2014